Publisher DTP Crew

This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. This interview features Will Norris, a software developer with Vidoop, an Internet security company. Will is also married to Elisabeth Norris, the manager of CitizenSpace, an open work space which in many ways embodies the collaborative spaces in which Free Open Source Software is created and distributed. The DTP crew are following the story of CitizenSpace merely because it is a physical metaphor for the collaboration that happens in the virtual world of cyberspace.

Will starts out talking about why he showed up to help with the build-in of CitizenSpace. He says that he likes CitizenSpace, but his specific motivation was to help his wife complete the transition from the third floor to the first floor of 425 Second Street, so that she could stop working the 60-hour weeks that she needed to complete the transition.

Will gives us some of the details that are inovlved with the build-in at CitizenSpace. Before March 1, 2009, they are going to have to assemble 20 tables, and bunches of tables and chairs.

Will describes what he sees as the similarities and differences between the work at CitizenSpace and the work of building Free Open Source Software. The similarity is that CitizenSpace is very open, and so pretty much anyone can come to CitizenSpace, drop in, and offer their thoughts and work to improve CitizenSpace. The difference is that while Free Open Source Software is built in a distributed fashion with International teams, CitizenSpace relies on the work of local teams.

Will then gives us his history of using Linux. He studied it as a computer science student in college, but then after college, he became tired of rebuilding his kernel and doing other basic work to make his Linux system go, so he switched over to Apple's Mac OS X, which runs on Unix, and thus has many of the same tools as Linux, but with greater polish and ease of use. Then he went back to Linux at work, because he needed Linux to write some of the software he was being paid to create.

He is currently working for Vidoop, a Portland Internet security company, which is paying him to work on the DISO project, which is a software project that lets users of social networks like Facebook and MySpace interact with each other across those closed systems.

Will then explains how the concepts of CitizenSpace founder Tara Hunt's book, "The Whuffie Factor", applies to work at CitizenSpace. He says that individuals can benefit from helping one another. "You never know who is sitting at the table next to you." Collaborating makes sense that way.

Then he talks about his cooking riff, which is a story that he was using to explain Free Open Source Software collaboration to his wife. He talks about a cooking website, which allows people to share and tweak cooking recipies. He says that it is almost expected that people will add comments changing a recipe to meet their unique food needs. He says that building Free Open Source Software is similar, except that while cooking is a more common skill, programming software is less common. But the fundamental nature of sharing is the same.

Will says that CitizenSpace is comprised of lots of people with diverse interests, which is great for collaboration and creativity. He says that he was able to solve a problem someone was having with WordPress by writing a simple plug-in in less than 20 minutes, simply because he happened to hear someone at a nearby table saying they had some problems with WordPress. People have diverse strengths and weaknesses. His strength is working on back-end security issues. His weakness is user interface design (a common problem in the Free Open Source Software community).

Will says that CitizenSpace is very idealistic. It is very open. Anyone can walk in.

Be sure to keep an eye out for cameo appearances by Ridley, The Wonder Dog. He is the little black pug with the dashing red sweater.

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:

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Contact Information Christian Einfeldt, einfeldt at g mail dot com